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Longmont initiative focuses on child sexual assault

Project Pinwheel aims to educate kids, parents and school officials about realities of the crime

By Pierrette J. Shields

Times-Call staff writer

Posted:
04/12/2014 10:12:51 PM MDT

Updated:
04/12/2014 10:15:10 PM MDT

As the parents of five children, one former Longmont couple had a lot to juggle and a lot of worries for their family. But they had a blind spot, and the results were devastating.

They now say that they never seriously considered that someone close to the family would exploit that relationship and sexually abuse their son, who was 13 when the assaults started. The assaults persisted for about a year. The family knew Bradley Boda through church, where he served as a youth director, and other social circles. He attended family events and chaperoned the children on church trips.

"I didn't suspect anything," the victim's father said. The Times-Call is withholding their identities. "First of all, sexual assault on a child wasn't in my thought pattern."

His wife agreed. Their children were safe with trusted adults, they thought.

"You look back at family photos and you just want to puke because there he was," she said, noting that Boda attended the wedding of the son they later would learn he groomed and sexually assaulted.

Boda was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2010 for sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust, showing a pattern of abuse. The couple's son was among at least 14 victims identified during the investigation and prosecution.

Project Pinwheel

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The experience suffered by the family is common enough that Longmont Public Safety Chief Mike Butler asked the Longmont Ending Violence Initiative to work with his officers to develop a program that will raise awareness and reporting of child sexual assaults to law enforcement. Longmont Police Detective Sandie Jones and Sgt. Sean Harper are working with LEVI on the new initiative, called Project Pinwheel, or Preserving childhood innocence now with healthy environments, education and lives.

Jones said her caseload of sexual assault cases is hovering around 50. Harper, whose typical assignment does not include sexual assaults, said he asked if he could help because he believes protecting children is among the most important jobs for police.

Trish Wood, project coordinator for LEVI, said Project Pinwheel is aimed at educating children, parents and school officials about the dangers of child sexual assault. One of the keys for that education is that the danger tends to lurk among people the children know, like in Boda's case, and not among strangers.

A $29,410 federal Justice Assistance Grant will fund the initial effort to get Pinwheel off the ground.

"The first take of the grant is to get a strategic plan together," Wood said.

A steering committee started work in 2012. The grant was awarded in 2013 and this month marks a "mini awareness campaign" in the city.

The committee defined a significant problem that children face, noting in a February report that in Colorado, 25 percent of females and 6 percent of males will be victimized in their lifetimes and it typically takes 10 to 16 years for an offender to be detected. More than 90 percent of perpetrators are known to the victims.

"That is a lot of people that are damaged," Wood said. "There is a lot of kids and a lot of long term repercussions, for sure, on the whole family."

It is a tough topic for many adults to consider.

"It is a lot of stigma," she said.

The mother of the man who was victimized in the Boda case said her son has struggled with guilt for not coming forward sooner and with pornography use introduced to him as a child.

"It is a lifetime sentence for every victim he touched, and there is not way you can ever change that," she said.

Jones, Wood and Harper said Pinwheel is aimed at not only detecting assault cases but preventing them.

Wood said the organization hopes to reach elementary aged children to teach them about how to identify inappropriate behaviors from adults. Additionally, education will be offered for adults whose positions require them legally to report suspected child abuse.

The victim's father said he isn't sure he would have heard messages about sexual abuse of children, but in retrospect would have liked the opportunity to learn about the dangers somewhere.

"It was never on my radar at all, ever," he said, adding had he had an inkling of what was happening to his son he would have intervened immediately.

Messages

Residents in Longmont may start seeing advertisements in local restaurants in an initial effort to begin raising awareness. However, the project is still in its infancy, so it doesn't even have a website launched yet. Wood said it is in the works. Pinwheel organizers are working with Boulder's Blue Sky Bridge, which provides forensic interviews of children who may have suffered sexual assaults.

Wood said children who speak out should be believed.

"If a kid tells you something is going on, the chances they are not lying is really high," she said, but she noted some adults hesitate to believe them. "Who wants to believe that someone you trust and love will do something that horrible to you? So, that is a huge hurdle."

The victim's mother said the community needs more education on the issue, in the classrooms and within families.

"That is exactly what this project is for, to put that awareness out there," Jones said, adding she expects the project will result in a heavier caseload for detectives.

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